Chechen terrorists (letter)

by Patrick J. Gethin

News Weekly, December 6, 2008

Sir,

With Islamic terrorism posing such a major threat, it ill behoves News Weekly to give the Chechen terrorists a free hit by publishing only their side of their case ("Moscow's campaign of kidnapping and murder", News Weekly, November 8, 2008).

These Islamic terrorists murdered hundreds of schoolchild hostages at Beslan, and many other innocent civilian victims. Kidnappings, mass slaughter and torture are part of their regular method of operation. Readers of News Weekly who are interested will find details of these and more in The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror by former senior US Government counter-terrorism expert Dr Paul Murphy.

Recently, I visited the Republic of Georgia, where I learnt of Georgian experience of the Chechen "jihadis" who fought against the Georgians in the first Abkhazian war of secession. They had a practice of piercing Georgian captives' veins and making them drink their own blood before they killed them slowly.

My contacts with Russia began in the early 1980s when I joined people trying to help Christian prisoners of conscience in communist lands. I have maintained my interest and my contact and visited Russia, too.

It is simply nonsense to equate the Russian government with Stalin's regime as does your correspondent. It would be as nonsensical to equate President Bush with Hitler. A good cure for Russian "bogeyman" stories is to learn the language, visit the country and rely on good Christian contacts there.

Patrick J. Gethin,Mundaring, WA

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Editor's note:

News Weekly's article, "Moscow's campaign of kidnapping and murder", did not defend or excuse Chechen terrorism. On the contrary, it distinguished clearly between the assassinations of Chechen militants and the Kremlin-inspired murders of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko, not to mention the suspected poisoning of Russian human rights lawyer Karina Moskalenko and her husband and children, none of whom could be classified as terrorist threats.